Speaker 1: To celebrate the end of season two. Of many Questions,
Speaker 1: I'm thrilled to share a few more answers from our
Speaker 1: guests that you didn't get to hear over the course
Speaker 1: of the year. As I'm sure you know, we ask
Speaker 1: each guest the same seven questions every interview, but we
Speaker 1: don't always get to share every answer. But that's why
Speaker 1: I love having one last chance every season to share
Speaker 1: a few of the conversations with our guests that you
Speaker 1: haven't heard. So to close out this season, here's a
Speaker 1: few of my favorite answers from guests this year that
Speaker 1: weren't in the original episodes. Are deleted scenes from season two.
Speaker 1: And don't worry, well, we might be tying a bow
Speaker 1: on this season. Many Questions will be back soon with
Speaker 1: brand new, fantastic inspired and interesting guests, but for now,
Speaker 1: let's get into season two's deleted scenes. Here is pull
Speaker 1: at surprise winning author Anthony Dorr Tony What would be
Speaker 1: your last meal? Mine would be crisps? Whatever? Really? Would
Speaker 1: you really know? It would be? Would I would have them?
Speaker 1: They would be there along with everything else that I
Speaker 1: was going to eat. I love them? But but what
Speaker 1: would your last meal be? Um? It's gonna be predictable
Speaker 1: the American. But I think I would do a hamburger.
Speaker 1: I'm trying not to eat beef very much, but I
Speaker 1: think if it's my last one, I'm going to go
Speaker 1: for it. I think you're fine, uh, and then with
Speaker 1: like pickles, catchup mustard, the whole thing. Then French fries
Speaker 1: with salt, really like salt. And then I would have
Speaker 1: vanilla ice cream with M and M's on it. Now
Speaker 1: is this something that you would eat when you were
Speaker 1: a child or is it something that you're just imagining?
Speaker 1: What the distillation of deliciousness is here? Like doctor Driver
Speaker 1: the therapist in that one. Yeah, totally, I might be connected.
Speaker 1: And it's like a try eildhood meal, isn't it? But
Speaker 1: there's something about Yeah, maybe it's a mouthful of nostalgia
Speaker 1: and comfort because apparently I'm dying right after this. That
Speaker 1: was well, I mean, I I know it would suck,
Speaker 1: it would It's so funny. It's kind of like. But
Speaker 1: I also maybe in my version, like your last meal,
Speaker 1: I someways think about all the other reasons, Like it
Speaker 1: could be that you are like the last person on Earth,
Speaker 1: or it could be in like the metaverse in some
Speaker 1: virtual place one can go and experience like that feeling
Speaker 1: of what your last meal is without you actually dying.
Speaker 1: And then I think, but what would happen if you
Speaker 1: actually got trapped in the metaverse and then it really
Speaker 1: was your last meal? And then I go mad And
Speaker 1: then at four o'clock in the morning and I don't
Speaker 1: know what to do. I would like to say I
Speaker 1: could appreciate each of meal I'm going to eat as
Speaker 1: if it were my last meal. But usually I'm like
Speaker 1: reading something and I don't taste it at all. I'm
Speaker 1: jamming a whole doughnut right into my mouth and looking
Speaker 1: at my email, and I realized I eat the whole
Speaker 1: doughnut and didn't pay attention. So I'm trying to be
Speaker 1: more present with the eating thing as because that's what
Speaker 1: your exercise really is about, is defamiliarized this stuff we're
Speaker 1: putting in our mouths and taste it because it's incredible,
Speaker 1: Like we have access to so many spices that humans
Speaker 1: throughout history didn't have. I can go buy avocados in
Speaker 1: January and boise Idaho's incredible, So why if I could
Speaker 1: just appreciate those things a little more and of a
Speaker 1: bowl of vanilla ice cream and where it's ninety four
Speaker 1: degrees outside, that's a terrible That's like an Aztec king
Speaker 1: would sacrifice like forty people just to get Yeah. Oh,
Speaker 1: I like that. I wish that that was a tribe
Speaker 1: that we would find who had deified frozen dairy. I
Speaker 1: would totally join that. I would join that collection of people.
Speaker 1: Here is television host Katie Nolan. What quality do you
Speaker 1: like least about yourself? How much time you got? Honestly, though,
Speaker 1: I have spent the last whatever time two and a
Speaker 1: half years whatever, we will all call the pandemic when
Speaker 1: we look back at this part of our life. I'm
Speaker 1: working on forgiveness of self, very self critical, and I
Speaker 1: know that's probably a common trait among people, so I'm
Speaker 1: not saying it makes me special, but it is something
Speaker 1: that I am trying to work on. Forgive myself for
Speaker 1: my shortcomings or understand them better so that I can
Speaker 1: engineer my life around them. But the one that will
Speaker 1: always haunt me is time management. I hate my lack
Speaker 1: of an ability to manage time. I get very caught
Speaker 1: up in my brain and I'm very curious, so I
Speaker 1: follow a lot of paths like I could spend an
Speaker 1: hour and a half reading about drama between two people
Speaker 1: I've never met and don't know and I've never heard of.
Speaker 1: Until I see a headline of this drama that sounds interesting.
Speaker 1: I can read it and learn everything about it for
Speaker 1: an hour and a half, but then I just lose
Speaker 1: track of everything else. Scheduling things makes me so anxious.
Speaker 1: I was ten minutes late for this a thing that
Speaker 1: was very important to me, and I'm in my pajamas.
Speaker 1: But the most generous reading I've had of that is
Speaker 1: my good friend Mina Kimes, who also works in sports
Speaker 1: TV and is brilliant and is our future and our queen.
Speaker 1: She compared me to Andy Reid, and I know that
Speaker 1: might not land, but I can explain it. He's a
Speaker 1: football coach who is very creative in his play calling,
Speaker 1: but sometimes he gets so distracted by how creative he
Speaker 1: wants to be that he doesn't realize that the game
Speaker 1: is about to end, and so he runs on the
Speaker 1: time to do the thing he wanted to do because
Speaker 1: he was showing off all the things he knows how
Speaker 1: to do. It was part of the thing that's helped
Speaker 1: me see the good intentions of my weaknesses. And try
Speaker 1: to do my best at them where I can, and
Speaker 1: then be prepared to apologize for them or warn people
Speaker 1: of them ahead of time, because nothing's worse than disappointing people.
Speaker 1: There are all things less than disappointing people. Yes, probably
Speaker 1: killing people. I think maybe after you've disappointed them, well,
Speaker 1: then you have to They can't continue to live disappointed
Speaker 1: in me. I must rid the earth of their existence.
Speaker 1: I say this a lot, and it's a soccer term,
Speaker 1: which is, even if it's going really badly, you have
Speaker 1: to play to the last whistle. You have to play
Speaker 1: with everything. Don't say, well, your creative play for the
Speaker 1: last fourteen seconds of a game. But I'm a procrastinator.
Speaker 1: That's what I do because if I as soon as
Speaker 1: I write it, or film it or put it on paper,
Speaker 1: whatever it is I'm making, then it's going to be done.
Speaker 1: And I don't want it to be done. I like
Speaker 1: living in the part where you're figuring it out until
Speaker 1: it's perfect. I don't want to do it. What about
Speaker 1: the idea that like it is never going to be perfect?
Speaker 1: And now what about letting go of this constraint you've
Speaker 1: put on it and just be in the process, which
Speaker 1: you clearly love because God knows you create. Everything is
Speaker 1: self generated that you do, Everything is about you creating
Speaker 1: this content and offering that up. And people clearly obsessively
Speaker 1: love what you do. Even the people that don't get it,
Speaker 1: they love what you do. That's like that. I think
Speaker 1: that might be one of the nicest things anyone said
Speaker 1: to me. I hope that you will be nicer to
Speaker 1: yourself because you're great. You're great. No, not really, I
Speaker 1: have my own ship to work on. This is writer,
Speaker 1: filmmaker and podcast host Sam Fragoso. Okay, what I really
Speaker 1: want to hear this now because I think you might
Speaker 1: know things that I don't. What question do you most
Speaker 1: want answered? My question? And it's something I've thought a
Speaker 1: lot about this year in the pandemic. Why do we
Speaker 1: often wait for conditions to get so bad before we
Speaker 1: make change? And that's true of love, it's true of
Speaker 1: this looming ongoing environmental crisis, it's true of racial justice,
Speaker 1: it's true across the board. Why do we have to
Speaker 1: weigh eight for the conditions to be so untenable before
Speaker 1: we try to make them tenable again? And it's something
Speaker 1: that really bothers me. You know, last year We did
Speaker 1: a podcast with friend labor Witz, and back in the
Speaker 1: late nineties, we were talking about this piece she wrote,
Speaker 1: which was with Vanity Fair was like Nas told too,
Speaker 1: I think it's called on race is what it's called.
Speaker 1: And she makes all these great with a lovely, smart,
Speaker 1: thoughtful points, as she often does about race, and she said,
Speaker 1: I didn't know about any of this within people of color,
Speaker 1: within the black community until I had a friend that
Speaker 1: got pulled over while he had a Mercedes, and I thought,
Speaker 1: that's interesting. But why do you have to know someone?
Speaker 1: Why do we have to wait to know someone? Why
Speaker 1: can't we actually just believe people's testimony? And this constant
Speaker 1: thing this past year in the pandemic, whether it's around
Speaker 1: mask mandates or police brutality, why do we have to
Speaker 1: wait to have a secondhand account? But what do we need?
Speaker 1: It's a really really good question. Why do we have
Speaker 1: to wait for things to get so bad before we
Speaker 1: address them? And also we don't seem to address them definitively.
Speaker 1: It's like we all know that there is a climate
Speaker 1: emergency and people are still just talking about it. I
Speaker 1: wonder what that is? What is that human thing? The
Speaker 1: easy answer is that it's laziness or slothfulness, as fran
Speaker 1: would say. It also could just be life is really
Speaker 1: hard already, we're already trying to just make it through
Speaker 1: the day. When it comes to these big issues that
Speaker 1: feel larger than life, although they're very much of life,
Speaker 1: we let them go. We're trying to get on because,
Speaker 1: as you said, this is all over in an instant.
Speaker 1: She said, I know about people's experiences because I have
Speaker 1: friends that look like that person, and I think that
Speaker 1: applies to empathy in general. It's like COVID. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: well I care about COVID because my friend died and
Speaker 1: I had some people who mind. But why would we
Speaker 1: have to wait for that? It's mystifying. I honestly think
Speaker 1: that we look at a lot. We look at a
Speaker 1: lot myopically and also to keep the gigantic nature of
Speaker 1: stuff that's happening in the world at bay, and that
Speaker 1: it's only when that bubble is penetrated by something personal
Speaker 1: happening perhaps and it should or shouldn't. That's how it is,
Speaker 1: maybe you're saying. When it comes to like change and
Speaker 1: education in this country, there's been a long conversation about
Speaker 1: giving kids free college or reducing tuition and all these things,
Speaker 1: and the situation is dire. We know it's dire. There's
Speaker 1: people not qualified for the jobs. There's not enough jobs
Speaker 1: to even be qualified for. Schools are more expensive than
Speaker 1: every we know. We all know this. And my dad,
Speaker 1: who's a teacher, mind you, I sometimes said, and we
Speaker 1: should really think about changing the system. We should think
Speaker 1: about having these free colleges. In his first response as
Speaker 1: a teacher as a Mexican, Yeah, but I had to
Speaker 1: pay for school. I had to pay for them. So
Speaker 1: it's like eye for an eye. It's like we're always
Speaker 1: paying off the debt. There's like this ongoing ledger that
Speaker 1: we need to toss out to say we're here now,
Speaker 1: Like I'm sorry, my dad paid for it. But it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean kids, aren't you now? So I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe that's part of it. I think that also works oversely,
Speaker 1: and that it wasn't me doing that oppressing. I didn't
Speaker 1: do all of that stuff. Why should I be responsible now?
Speaker 1: I think he just comes back to we are these
Speaker 1: individual entities, and maybe it is some deep reptilian brain
Speaker 1: recognition that we are here for such a short amount
Speaker 1: of time and that actually our lot is all we
Speaker 1: really have the capacity to care about, and maybe there
Speaker 1: is some deep programming of just taking care of yourself
Speaker 1: and maybe your children because there's the DNA of the progeny.
Speaker 1: I think it will. What it does is it takes
Speaker 1: something that's really meant to stop you getting eaten by
Speaker 1: a wild animal, and you start appying that to social
Speaker 1: constructs that we have created as opposed to going, okay,
Speaker 1: if we've created these social constructs, we need to develop
Speaker 1: our responses to them, but nobody wants to do that.
Speaker 1: They just want to make sure that they can take
Speaker 1: care of their own lot. It's alternately depressing and understandable
Speaker 1: because it's requiring us as humans to evolve to a
Speaker 1: place to meet what we've created. It's so existential because
Speaker 1: we've created all this stuff in the world, but it's
Speaker 1: like we haven't evolved enough to meet the ship that
Speaker 1: we've created with a response that is going to help
Speaker 1: it or change it, and so we just stick our
Speaker 1: heads back in the ground. There must be something hopeful.
Speaker 1: In the specific context of when I asked fran the question,
Speaker 1: I was she was sixty. It didn't even totally compute,
Speaker 1: and I bet if you explain the dynamic and situation
Speaker 1: to your son, who's much younger than I am. It
Speaker 1: would make complete sense to him, and it would make
Speaker 1: complete sense to my younger sister and my younger brother.
Speaker 1: So there is some hope in future generations that I
Speaker 1: think they're asking these questions. I think they feel it
Speaker 1: in their bones. I do. So that's the hopeful party,
Speaker 1: and then they'll have their own bunch of shipped to
Speaker 1: deal with. Like I think that's also part of our condition,
Speaker 1: that we continue to create stuff that we then have
Speaker 1: to solve. Maybe it doesn't get solved. That's part of
Speaker 1: the position. We might not survive our own slot. I
Speaker 1: thought I was a depressing one, you know what, But
Speaker 1: we're here in this present moment being happy. It's all true.
Speaker 1: I think there is You're absolutely right, there is hope.
Speaker 1: My son does not look at the world the way
Speaker 1: that I do at all. He will have beginner's eyes.
Speaker 1: With all the ship that we've created, it's really who
Speaker 1: is the janitorial generation? Who is really gonna have to
Speaker 1: clean up all this ship? I think it might be you.
Speaker 1: I think it might be your generation. Sorry, Sam, here's
Speaker 1: a broom and a dust bat and brush. I am
Speaker 1: a fossil, like I'm going to hand that on hand
Speaker 1: that up. Next up is comedian, actress and co writer
Speaker 1: of the TV series Starstruck Rose Matter Fair. Okay, so
Speaker 1: what person, plays or experience so far has most altered
Speaker 1: your life? Oh, this is a it's very hard. I
Speaker 1: feel like I haven't lived lived answers to the question,
Speaker 1: I think experience in place I think would be would
Speaker 1: be a big one for me. And that is I
Speaker 1: think just being from New Zealand, living in New Zealand,
Speaker 1: growing up in a place like New Zealand, it has
Speaker 1: an immense effect I think on anyone who went through that.
Speaker 1: I live in London now, but I think, yeah, I
Speaker 1: just wouldn't have been the person I am and do
Speaker 1: the things I do, and particularly I think, you know,
Speaker 1: I started in comedy, like, I don't think I would
Speaker 1: have had the attitude towards making things and making comedy
Speaker 1: and writing and just creativity in general if I hadn't
Speaker 1: come from a country where it was like, I don't
Speaker 1: know something specific about news that you know a lot
Speaker 1: of New Zealanders, you know who like we're an l
Speaker 1: a at the same time as you install all those
Speaker 1: kind of you know, people who have moved abroad, and
Speaker 1: there is just this weird quality when you come from
Speaker 1: a country in the bottom of the world and you're
Speaker 1: allowed to like have this sort of sandpit of just
Speaker 1: doing whatever you want without I think a lot of
Speaker 1: the pressures, particularly and like you know, being a performer
Speaker 1: in like cities like London or like you know, in
Speaker 1: the States and stuff, and know, you can be weird.
Speaker 1: But New Zealand seems to be this really extraordinary incubator
Speaker 1: for creativity. Like that's what I've noticed with the actors, writers, directors,
Speaker 1: musicians that I know New Zealand. It's like this brilliant
Speaker 1: creative science island where you're all you're all grown and
Speaker 1: then you go off out into the world and everybody
Speaker 1: because there is something recognizable there. For me, there is
Speaker 1: something recognizably Keywi. There is a way of seeing the
Speaker 1: world that is brilliant and clever and also doesn't really
Speaker 1: give a fuck, but it's curious and fascinated and not
Speaker 1: or at least not publicly judgmental, yes, but rather rather
Speaker 1: sort of let me have all this input. Maybe again
Speaker 1: from being from little lovely Islands at the you know,
Speaker 1: in the southern hemisphere. There's a lot of this pressure.
Speaker 1: I think, I think the output of of lots of
Speaker 1: things like music and film that comes out of New Zealand.
Speaker 1: I mean there's always like it's always the funny thing.
Speaker 1: I think there's very I think Ireland and New Zealand
Speaker 1: have very similar like a lot of my Irish friends,
Speaker 1: it's bizarrely like it's kind of similar traits. But I
Speaker 1: think it's you know, farming and men with depression. That's
Speaker 1: heavy drinking, heavy drinking, sheep farming, member depression, similar population size. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's the vibe. I think geography really obviously has an
Speaker 1: effect on a sort of national attitude and and and
Speaker 1: sort of you know, even personality traits. But I think
Speaker 1: I think, you know, New Zealand is a place where
Speaker 1: there is like an earnest as well sometimes in like
Speaker 1: a connection to the land that you're from, and you know,
Speaker 1: a sensitivity. I think that maybe you know, the other
Speaker 1: places have less or I don't know. I think it's
Speaker 1: just a great place for you to be a weird
Speaker 1: artie freak and like you know, learn to do something
Speaker 1: without pressure and you know you look at like you
Speaker 1: know tycho or like you know a fly to the
Speaker 1: concord or you know, act your main all that's amazing
Speaker 1: all given the opportunity to just sunk around for many
Speaker 1: years doing comedy and the same with you know, filmmakers
Speaker 1: from New Zealand. I think it's like the work is
Speaker 1: the focus sometimes rather than like the industry, because it's like, no,
Speaker 1: there's not really an industry you know down there as
Speaker 1: such like as much as you know here or in America,
Speaker 1: and just you know, a healthy attitude towards um life.
Speaker 1: It's certainly working in comedy and television and stuff. I
Speaker 1: think there's always part when you when you've got another
Speaker 1: New Zealander, like I've got Alice Neddon, who I write
Speaker 1: you sound struck with, and it's like inception. You know,
Speaker 1: we're each other's token, just grounding each other and going, remember,
Speaker 1: none of this matters. It's fine. You are such a stupid,
Speaker 1: silly person from we grew up streets away from each other.
Speaker 1: This is all ridiculous and very funny, and it's so
Speaker 1: great and healthy to have that. I think it's so
Speaker 1: nice to have a mate doing all of this with
Speaker 1: it means my imagine I'm very jealous of that. It's lovely.
Speaker 1: Next up is actress and model Brookshields. What relationship, real
Speaker 1: or fictionalized, defines love for you? You know, it's interesting
Speaker 1: because love in my personal life had always seemed conditional.
Speaker 1: Then I became a mother and all of it flipped
Speaker 1: on its head. It was no longer selfish to me.
Speaker 1: That first feeling of unselfish love was it was something
Speaker 1: I don't think. I thought I would love my baby
Speaker 1: and I whatever, and I had a hard time with
Speaker 1: my first one postpartum wise, but beyond that, I've never
Speaker 1: known that kind of selfless love where I really it
Speaker 1: was just purely about this this other creature that I
Speaker 1: was both responsible for and the desire to be the
Speaker 1: best part of myself or version of myself instead of
Speaker 1: just fit into somebody else's idea of of what that
Speaker 1: love should look like. You know, Yeah, there was nothing
Speaker 1: you had to do to experience that love. It was
Speaker 1: in and all of itself. Like that. I I get that.
Speaker 1: It's it's a particularly I think you mentioned like the
Speaker 1: transactional nature of being an actor or trying to make
Speaker 1: a living doing it, and love is so wrapped up
Speaker 1: in that because love and approbation in terms of like
Speaker 1: an audience or people putting you in things. And then
Speaker 1: when you have a child, it's so beautiful, how it
Speaker 1: just it blows up that whole notion of you don't
Speaker 1: have to try to do anything. You have to feed
Speaker 1: that baby and stare at it and love it and
Speaker 1: play with it and be there's no, there's something you
Speaker 1: actually have to do, no, in order to engender that love.
Speaker 1: It's so pure. Yeah, And I think my my version
Speaker 1: of love for me, even all romantic love had a
Speaker 1: it like had a goal to it. You did this, this,
Speaker 1: this and this, and then that would happen or or something.
Speaker 1: Or I'd be like, look at me, walk a walk
Speaker 1: a walk, I like I would be doing a song
Speaker 1: and dance just to sort of get approval or I
Speaker 1: was never really first in it, and so it was
Speaker 1: it was very odd. But then to you have this
Speaker 1: primary thing kind of comes out of you and feeds
Speaker 1: on you, and it's the most parasitic, crazy relationship, right,
Speaker 1: And to just think, yeah, that's she doesn't even know
Speaker 1: me and she loves me. Oh my god, I must
Speaker 1: be all right, wait till you get to know me.
Speaker 1: Here is comedian and television host Graham Norton. Okay, So
Speaker 1: what would be your last meal? It would definitely involve potato.
Speaker 1: What because because you love potatoes. I don't mean this
Speaker 1: to be stereotypical about Irish people that because you ate
Speaker 1: a lot of potatoes growing up a lot of different ways.
Speaker 1: Have you always had an affinity for the tubers? I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know it's certain whether it's you know, nature
Speaker 1: and nurture, I don't know, but a bowl of mash
Speaker 1: but aato is so delicious. Remember seeing him? What's that
Speaker 1: York film? There's a scene at the end where she's
Speaker 1: on death throw and she's getting her last meal. And
Speaker 1: I remember I was on a diet at the time.
Speaker 1: I was trying to dose weight. So I see some
Speaker 1: loots of fish and salad and things, and they gave
Speaker 1: her her last meal and it was like chop steak.
Speaker 1: It was a really big chop steak with potato and gravy,
Speaker 1: and and she pushed it away. And that was when
Speaker 1: I lost all sympathy for that character, because I eat it,
Speaker 1: you more on eat it looks delicious, get it down here.
Speaker 1: So I do like the concept of last meal because
Speaker 1: all of us are going to have a last meal,
Speaker 1: but our last meal will probably be toast. If you
Speaker 1: die of all day, you ends up with toast, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, that wouldn't be a bad thing for me.
Speaker 1: I love toast, do you, Yeah, really do if it
Speaker 1: if it ended up being my last meal, I'd be
Speaker 1: really piste off. It were the crisps that I didn't want,
Speaker 1: but I had to take a packet of crisps because
Speaker 1: I was hungry, but they didn't have the flavor that
Speaker 1: I liked, and I ended up with like I hate cheese,
Speaker 1: no onion crisps, Like I ate cheese nonion crisp. Because
Speaker 1: that would be really a bummer for me, that was
Speaker 1: my last meal. You could have, it would give you
Speaker 1: a reason to live. You'd hang on. I must get
Speaker 1: to the shock, must not let that lingering shit taste
Speaker 1: for eternity. Yeah. And also I suppose maybe this whole
Speaker 1: idea of last meal, it only makes sense in a
Speaker 1: situation like you're going to be killed in fairness to
Speaker 1: be work, you would I suppose lose some interest. And
Speaker 1: that's what people have tried to say. There's me. They've
Speaker 1: been like on the show, they've been like wow, they
Speaker 1: were like, you know, I just think I would be
Speaker 1: I just I don't think I could eat, and I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah no, but let's just say you could.
Speaker 1: Let's just see really hungry because it is your last meal,
Speaker 1: and let's take the whole death thing out of it.
Speaker 1: There might be I think I even said that some
Speaker 1: of there might be another reason why this is your
Speaker 1: last meal. And there was a really long s You're
Speaker 1: being abducted by aliens and they don't eat so potatoes,
Speaker 1: lovely potato. It's mashed mashed potato. Probably do you put
Speaker 1: butter and a little bit of cream or milk in
Speaker 1: your bashed potatoes or do you just well, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: When I go out, I eat whatever. But in the
Speaker 1: house it's vegan and it's and it's one of the
Speaker 1: things about mashed potos because I always thought mashed potatoes
Speaker 1: were gorgeous because you put you know, lots of woster
Speaker 1: in them. And can I just say, we've been underestimating
Speaker 1: the potato this whole time. Just a bit of plant
Speaker 1: based butter, olive oil, salt and pepper and then mash away.
Speaker 1: It is as delicious as any mashy you've ever had.
Speaker 1: You're very surprising, Graham. I like that vegan mashed potatoes.
Speaker 1: That that okay, you will last me on and then
Speaker 1: I'm actually going to make that. Does it depend on
Speaker 1: what potatoes you use? Because in America you can't get
Speaker 1: you can't get like are they called marass piper my favorite?
Speaker 1: You can't get them in America. Can't find they are
Speaker 1: the most versatile. They are the most versatile. They are.
Speaker 1: They are the best roast potatoes, the best chips, and
Speaker 1: the best mashed potatoes I found. But in America they
Speaker 1: must have good potatoes. They don't have, you know, they
Speaker 1: don't have new potatoes. They have like russets, but the
Speaker 1: small potatoes. It's funny, I haven't found any really good ones.
Speaker 1: But then I've I've never been to Ida Home off
Speaker 1: the Potato exactly. Maybe I got to go there. This
Speaker 1: is the legendary journalist and television host Dnam'm Paul in
Speaker 1: your life. Can you tell me about something that has
Speaker 1: grown out of a personal disaster? Well, I think my
Speaker 1: first personal disaster was failing my exams. I had never
Speaker 1: failed anything in my life. I'd never ever failed anything
Speaker 1: in my life. I was always you know, first or second,
Speaker 1: you know in my class. No, No, sorry, no, Joanna
Speaker 1: Blundle was first. Wow, you've never forgotten Joanna Bund. I
Speaker 1: have never forgotten. I was eleven years old until eighteen
Speaker 1: years old. I've never forgotten it. But just to say
Speaker 1: that when I did fail my levels, I was desperate.
Speaker 1: I've never been that desperate. I've never sunk into such
Speaker 1: a hole. And I didn't know what to do. I
Speaker 1: did not know what to do with my life. And
Speaker 1: I sent me home to Iran and I spent that
Speaker 1: year in the revolution. And you know, you you wouldn't
Speaker 1: want to say that that was a good thing that
Speaker 1: came out of failure, but that was a constructive thing
Speaker 1: that happened in my life that put me on the
Speaker 1: path to my future. What did you do in that year? What? What?
Speaker 1: What did you secretarial work? I did a little this
Speaker 1: or a little bad. But during a revolution, a cultural
Speaker 1: and a religious revolution, well it was hard because you know,
Speaker 1: I was of the class and the group who was
Speaker 1: being revolted against, so it was, you know, not that
Speaker 1: easy for me to get in to see what was
Speaker 1: going on. I watched it from the sidelines as it
Speaker 1: as it unfolded outside my door or whatever. I did
Speaker 1: not go into the protests I just watched and I
Speaker 1: talked and I listened, and then in the end, my
Speaker 1: father sent me out just before Ormeni came back, because
Speaker 1: you said, if you don't go now, you don't know
Speaker 1: what will happen. And I needed to go to university.
Speaker 1: So that's what happened. I really did not mean in
Speaker 1: any way to be disrespectful, to make light of what
Speaker 1: must have been an unfathomable time in Iran's history. But
Speaker 1: I do kind of love the idea that you've failed
Speaker 1: your A levels and then we're like, okay, I guess
Speaker 1: I'm just going to go back to the revolution. Then
Speaker 1: there's there's no point anymore. I'm just going to go
Speaker 1: back and watch everything chatting like that's that's that's kind
Speaker 1: of that's kind of amazing. It sort of happened after
Speaker 1: I failed. But it was great. I mean, what can
Speaker 1: I tell you? It wasn't great for so many people.
Speaker 1: Many people lost their lives. In fact, in my own family,
Speaker 1: my father's brother, my uncle was arrested and in jail
Speaker 1: and he was either killed or died or tortured to death.
Speaker 1: We never saw his body. They never gave it back. Um,
Speaker 1: And so these things stick with you it's a very
Speaker 1: particular context that you then go out into the world
Speaker 1: to do what you do. And I think it's astonishing
Speaker 1: that you survived that, that you survived not just physically
Speaker 1: but mentally. And I know you've said that so many
Speaker 1: people didn't. Well, to bring it back to what you've
Speaker 1: been asking me, I survived because of love and happiness
Speaker 1: and joy and knowing how to see it and how
Speaker 1: to recognize it and wanting it. M hmm. That is
Speaker 1: true for all of us as well. I mean that
Speaker 1: that is a wonderful thing to hear. And that's a wrap.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to season two, and
Speaker 1: I can't wait for you to join me next season
Speaker 1: for even more guests, more laughs, and more surprises. You know,
Speaker 1: when I first started many questions, I wanted each episode
Speaker 1: to help us create some sort of cultural anthology, every
Speaker 1: new guest giving us news stories that highlighted our differences
Speaker 1: and our similarities, whether we're reliving early gigs at CBGB
Speaker 1: with Debbie Harry, sharing fried Hallumi cheese with an Airs Mitchell,
Speaker 1: or talking about dog psychics with Graham Norton. I hope
Speaker 1: you heard something that made you laugh, something that surprised you,
Speaker 1: maybe even something that made you feel a little more
Speaker 1: connected to the world. Until next season, be sure to
Speaker 1: follow me on Instagram and Twitter at Driver Mini and
Speaker 1: subscribe to Many Questions on the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcast
Speaker 1: to be the first to note about our new episodes.
Speaker 1: I can't thank you enough for listening. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Mini Questions is hosted and written by Me Mini Driver,
Speaker 1: supervising producer Aaron Kaufman, Producer Morgan Lavoy, Research assistant Marissa Brown.
Speaker 1: Original music Sorry Baby by Mini Driver, Additional music by
Speaker 1: Aaron Kaufman. Executive produced by Me Mini Driver. Special thanks
Speaker 1: to Jim Nikolay, Will Pearson, Addison No Day, Lisa Castella
Speaker 1: and a Nick Oppenheim at w kPr, de La Pescador,
Speaker 1: Kate Driver and Jason Weinberg, and for constantly solicited tech
Speaker 1: support Henry Driver. Additional production from Many Questions with the
Speaker 1: Mini Driver Season two provided by Zoe Denkla and Carl
Speaker 1: Cadle